Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema’s recent decision to try all officials tied to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych in absentia in a single case under two sets of charges has experts worried that the case would collapse in the European Court for Human Rights.
Yarema wants to combine all cases against Yanukovych-era officials under two sets of charges, “state treason” and “creating a criminal organization.” He announced his decision on the same day the Kyiv Post revealed his investigations into Yanukovych allies on the EU sanctions list had stalled, with no charges filed against half the ex-regime officials on the list.
“Based on consultations we’re conducting with both lawyers of the ‘Heavenly Hundred’ and leading legal experts, we have decided to combine all these proceedings into one and qualify it as state treason and attempted [crime] against the state system of Ukraine, which is Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, as well as Article 255 – the creation of a criminal organization by Yanukovych,” Yarema said.
Heavenly Hundred is a reference to more than 100 people killed during the EuroMaidan revolution. The case has been under investigation since February, but so far all key figures of the case have been able to avoid justice.
The prosecutor’s new move appears to be an effort to solve two major problems. The first is the limited time in which the prosecutor can continue to investigate before taking the case to court – one year. According to Yarema, his office will now have a further year to bring the case.
The second is public anger that 10 months after Yanukovych and his cronies were driven out of power little appears to have been done to hold them to account. Legal experts suggested prosecutors are now looking to cut corners in an attempt to use one set of proceedings to fast track a result.
According to Ukrainian law, each defendant would be able to contest each item of evidence presented against them and their accomplices, which could lead to a long, drawn-out trial. But as Yarema can be reasonably confident Yanukovych and his co-defendants will not be showing up to hearings, they are likely to be represented by state-appointed lawyers. Should defense lawyers chose to designate one of them to contest all the evidence, it could dramatically speed up proceedings, but open the court up to accusations of failing to allow the suspects an adequate defense.
“This move is an attempt to show the prosecutor’s office is working hard, but in fact shows they don’t take the case seriously,” Aleksandr Zarutskiy, a leading defense attorney, told the Kyiv Post.
“It’s not a prudent decision, defendants may be able to appeal in Europe and argue a violation of Article 6 [the right to a fair trial under the European Convention of Human Rights].”
“It’s not about justice, it’s about publicity – they want a quick trial with a quick verdict.”
The Anti-Corruption Action Centre, a non-government organization which has been supplying evidence of wrongdoing by former regime officials to the general prosecutor’s office since March, was also critical.
“Now is not the time to combine the case,” said Daria Kaleniuk, the organization’s executive director.
“It could have been helpful at the beginning, but now the investigations in some cases are already well underway. They will have to prepare all the evidence from all the investigations before they can go to trial,” she says.
However, the new charges could save the day for EU sanctions against the officials, which were on the brink of collapse after prosecutors failed to substantiate the allegations of embezzlement that formed their original legal basis.
“The council always has the possibility to adopt new measures if there is unanimous agreement among the member states and a specific case is already prepared,” an EU official had earlier told the Kyiv Post.
